Open Ears
Thank you for all of your responses to my post. The passion and insight from so many of you is the foundation of our strong Democratic Party.
After reading through many of your comments, I want to make sure you know:
I support John Murtha 100 percent and I have opposed the Iraq war from the beginning.
I have long supported publicly funded elections.
The purpose of my privileged resolutions is to put the Republican Congress, over and over again, on record as covering up the truth by refusing to even debate the issues at the core of our democracy. The House does not have the same parliamentary procedures as the Senate does, such as the one Leader Reid used to shut down the Senate last year, but we will continue to look for opportunities to creatively and aggressively demonstrate the Republican hypocrisy and rubber stamping of the President's agenda. Your suggestions are always appreciated.
I am deeply concerned by the President's justification for his domestic wire tapping program and the Administration's unwillingness to provide details of the program to members of the intelligence committee. Senator Feingold's complaints served to highlight some critical issues about the program and the lack of accountability in the Bush Administration. This is a serious matter and all of the facts about the surveillance program must be fully investigated before we start talking about punitive action.
I really like the blog name MyDD because Direct Democracy is what this medium excels at. Your passion, your enthusiasm, your frustration, and your suggestions have been met with open ears. To those who are concerned about the Democratic course of action, let me assure you that we share a common cause: Democrats gaining control of Congress in November. We may sometimes disagree as to how this can best be accomplished, but that's what the Democratic Party is about. As "Crashing the Gate" demonstrated, even people who do not agree with each other on all issues can affect positive change if they stay unified. My job is to keep House Democrats unified on behalf of the people's interests, not the special interests, and as the New York Times reported today and Time Magazine reported last week, we've been doing a good job. We did it on Medicare. We did it on Social Security. We did it on tax cuts. And we're going to do it today on the budget.
Those of you that have heard me speak before may know that I often quote President John F. Kennedy. He said this, "Let us begin anew -- remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof." In that vein, I will do my best to stay current with what this community is writing and thinking and I make this pledge to you: every week that Congress is in session, I will come to DailyKos.com and report back on what House Democrats are doing to hold Republicans and the President accountable. I look forward to this continuing discussion and again, thank you for your comments. Together, this November we'll give the Republicans all the accountability they can handle.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/4/6/164045/2189